Don't Blink
by Runt the Brave
Summary: When the world blinks, everything shuts down, stops, and strange things begin to happen. Don't read if you haven't seen 3:11, Nikki Heat.


**A/N: Some fun I had. It's not supposed to be taken very seriously. I'm perfectly willing to write about the rest of the day, week, month, year... whatever happens to follow this little oneshot, but I probably won't. Feel free to claim the ridiculousness, just shoot me a message if you do.**

**Massive spoilers for Nikki Heat, and in all honesty, if haven't watched the show, why read fanfiction?**

Don't blink.

Seriously.

I'm asking you seriously and properly, _don't_ _blink_.

Bad stuff happens when the world blinks.

When the world blinks, everything shuts down, stops, and strange things begin to happen. When the world blinks, everything freezes, just for a split second, but it's enough time to make anything happen. When the world blinks, be sure and watch out for the carnage. Because it's only ever blinked two times before. Once, when the world first began, and life first began. Twice, when the first man was killed. Two very simple, very innocent times, that started something so, so, so much worst.

Please don't blink.

Because the world blinked on what started as a rather normal for three homicide detectives, a medical examiner, one writer, a teenager, an aging diva, a motorcyclist-surgeon, several uniform cops, a captain, an actress, and a fish named Josephine... a day when the world decided to type everything upside-down and throw an unhealthy dose of carnage into the streets of New York city. A murder had been reported to the 12th precinct, and not an in house murder either. No, this was one of the fun murders. Not that... in any case, murder should be considered fun. Well, it is fun. In a twisted, demented kind of way. Like Castle always says, there's only two types of people who actually sit about thinking about how to kill people. Anyway, a murder had been reported, and the homicide crew under the command of one Detective Katherine Beckett was sent to investigate.

Their writer – a self-assigned, glorified consultant – arrived on the scene some ten minutes after the other detectives. Glistening annoyance still sparked over his shoulders from his morning torture session. Being a successful writer can be such _hard_ work sometimes. He stalked onto the crime scene.

"Hey, Castle," called the Irish Detective. He jammed his hands in his coat pockets and jogged to keep up with the irate pace of the writer. Castle turned and looked at the younger, shorter, much less inexperienced man. "How's it going?"

The world hadn't blinked, not yet, and their conversation was just normal enough not to set off any major alarm bells, but Castle still noticed a note of urgency and concern lacing Kevin Ryan's voice. "Good. What's up?"

Ryan pulled his hands out of his pockets, a blue velvet box in right hand. He bounced a little, rolling on the balls of his feet as he flipped open the box and showed it to Castle. No, hang on, the world hasn't quiet blinked yet. Castle almost instantly knew the make and caret number of the gold and diamond ring nestled amongst the velvet. He had been divorced enough times, thank you very much. Still, the golden opportunity to turn a joke on the young detective could not be passed up so easily. "Ryan." He reached out and plucked the velvet box from his friend's hands. "I don't know what to say." Ryan had just poked his tongue out through his open lips: nervous habit. Castle held back a smirk. "Hey, I mean I'm flattered, but-"

"Oh come on," Ryan backhanded Castle's shoulder. "It's nice, right? Right?"

"Jenny is a lucky girl," Castle said, throwing a supportive arm around Ryan's shoulders. Hang in there, the world _still_ hasn't blinked. "So how are you going to pop the question?" The two detectives walked further into the crime scene. Unease started to rise in Ryan's stomach. Castle _was_ the experienced one with all this stuff. "Hot air balloon? Skyrider? Jumbletron?"

"I thought I'd just ask," Ryan said, stumbling a little over his words. Was it really going to be this complicated?

"No." Castle stopped walking, stepped back from Ryan, and mentally thanked the kid for the distraction from the earlier torture. "You can't _just_ ask. You gotta make a statement. It's gotta be big." Inspiration struck. "Helicopter ride."

Hang in there, the blink is coming.

Detective Beckett, Ryan's boss, Castle's muse, and one of the NYC's finest, stepped up to the pair. Irritation flashed momentarily through her stomach. Castle hadn't brought coffee, like he normally did. Granted, it wasn't ridiculously early in the morning, but still, he _always_ brought coffee. She caught the tail end of Castle's spiel and sighed. Ryan would need someone to set the record straight. "Actually, most girls prefer something more intimate."

Ryan mentally sighed. Now "mom" and "dad" would get in another little banter fight, like they always did around the bullpen. Why couldn't they just see and except that it was their own method of flirting! He nodded, anyway. Keeping Beckett happy was usually more important that listening to Castle's wild theories and ideas. Although... in this case, the suggestions didn't seem have bad.

"What?" Castle said, sounding slightly offended. "You're just supposed-" wait for it "-to be boring and ask," he held up the little blue velvet box, popped it open, and showed Beckett the diamond ring inside. The world flowed around them, having no idea what was happening, or any cognizant thought of what might happen if it were to simply close it's eyes for one simple second and see what happened in that brief second of insanity. "Will you marry me?"

Ryan blinked. This was new.

Beckett blinked.

Castle blinked.

The world blinked.

Carnage.

"Sure," Beckett said, reaching up and covering the box with her hand. She slapped the lid closed and smirked at the flabbergasted expression on the faces of her two associates. Both Castle and Ryan were blinking at her. "For _real_," she said, an elated feeling rising in her chest. "Just give Ryan back his ring, before he-"

Ryan fainted.

And the world started to go back to normal, almost completely on aware of the chaos it had just brought down upon the heads of a homicide detective, her writer, two more homicide detectives, a medical examiner, a teenager, an aging diva, a motorcyclist-surgeon, several uniform cops, a captain, an actress, and a fish named Josephine.


End file.
